Scottish Indices of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD)

Last updated on 31/03/2015 - 13:58

Scottish Indices of Multiple Deprivation have been compiled for 2004, 2006, 2009 and 2012.

The SIMD page on the Scottish Government website links to background and methodology, publications, an FAQ plus data files in Excel format in addition to SIMD interactive mapping facilities which allows users to identify the range of deprivation data available across the 6,505 data zones for a range of geographies. In addition to the latest SIMD data there are an interactive mapping facility, analysis papers, analysis by postcode, plus SIMD look-up tables. There are also comparisons with the previous SIMD scores.

The data is based on a wide range of mainly administrative sources, to avoid reliance on decennial Census data.

The first Index (SIMD 2004) was published in June 2004 and was based on 31 indicators in the six individual domains of Current Income, Employment, Housing, Health, Education, Skills and Training and Geographic Access to Services and Telecommunications. SIMD 2009 contains 38 indicators in seven domains: Income, Employment, Health, Education Skills and Training, Geographic Access to Services, Housing and Crime.

The indices were commissioned from the Social Disadvantage Research Centre, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Oxford. Note that similar deprivation indices exist for England, and Wales, and Northern Ireland.